Distinctive button accordion styles.

Distinctive button accordion styles.

I enjoy listening to the differences in fiddling style and trying to find out more (mostly just using my ears) about in the distinctive styles of box playing.

I’ve heard that Billy McComiskey’s playing is representative of West Galway - who are other west Galway -style box players? Er or was this Tony McMahon? Mind just gone blank!

A major one of course is Sleibh Leucre (sorry can’t remember how to spell it), with fellas like Seamus Begley, Jackie Daly.

An important point is probably the C#/D vs B/C and I’d be interested to know if there are or have been geographic basis to the use of these different types. I suspect tho that the ‘style thing’ that interests me is based deeper than around just the tuning of the box.

What’s distinctive about the way box players from around and about play their tunes? Who are they? Could you suggest links to recordings, maybe on youtube or Comhaltas? Sometimes this may not be derived from regionalism, it might be just an individual musician’s approach.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

My husband is a lovley box player and I assure you he sounds nothing like Joe burke. He prefers the cleaner sound..like Dermot Byrne. The wet style is really just one of many different styles of box players.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Two of my favorite box players, who sound like no one else, are Mairtin O’Connor and Luke Daniels. Different styles, but both have a total mastery of the instrument, and what amazes me is how they play around the melody, embellish, etc. And here in the US, they are almost unknown. I saw Mr. Daniels when he was here with a group called Broderick a few years ago, and first heard Mr. O’Connor playing along on a couple of cuts on a LIz Carroll album, and sought out his CDs, only available as imports. Worth checking out.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

And then there’s Bobby Gardiner, Sharon Shannon, and Joe Derrane,each with their own style (and a bunch of others). Jackie Daly seems to be the most oecumenical of them all. Looks like he’s borrowed the best from everybody!

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

If you can, get to the Accordion ‘Recital’ at the Willie Clancy week sometime - a wide variety of styles are usually on offer - one after the other in quick sucession. A mixture of people teaching for the week and also a selection of those who happen to be around for the festival.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

My all-time favourite is Andrew Macnamara, from East Clare. He has lovely swing and bounce in the Clare Style, and can be heard on recordings by the Lahawns, as well as a few solo and one with his sister Mary Macnamara. He also played with the Tulla Ceili Band. This is the only vid I can find: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFi1SIzjNTA

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

You could go on forever with this. Surely It is how you hear a particular tune played by a particular player that makes you favour one player over another. Yet everyone has something to offer. I mean the usual suspects always get named in a thread like this, yet players of the calibre of Michael O’Connell - Damane Mullane and Darra Mulhearn haven’t had a mention. You may think you’re the bees knees on the box, yet to ordinary man in the street if you can’t play the Geese in the Bog or the Cuckoo Waltz your crap. That bit about ‘everyone has something to offer’…there are a few exceptions….

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

It’s precisely why this kind of thread can be useful, despite the mind-numbing procession of names (and of course I’ll plead guilty to that myself). Now that you have mentioned those people, Free Reed, I’ll check them out. I wouldn’t find out about them in my local newspaper. Lots of yet unknown excellent players are dying to get a mention on this board. We can do them the favour without forgetting the giants on whose shoulders they stand.

Re: Distinctive button accordion styles.

Free Reed ~ leave your coat and sit down and teach us your latest favourite squeeze. None of us here are going to forget those many that aren’t on U-Tube, but, down to the wire, it’s those present that count most, and this music live rather than squeezed through the compression, abuses, and depersonalization of any media, in machine and through speakers or off the Internet…

Let’s order another round and swap some tunes and tales. We’ll go for fish and chips or a curry later ~ if we still feel together enough to hold it down… ;-)